Chapter
NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Rivanna
Chapter
Charlottesville, Virginia
This Month in Railroad History
* December*
DECEMBER 01 1852
The Pacific becomes the first steam engine to operate west of the
Mississippi River when it made its first run for the Pacific of
Missouri RR.
DECEMBER 01 1884
The Oregon Short Line and the Oregon Railway & Navigation Co
(later forming the Union Pacific's route to the northwest)
officially open.
DECEMBER 01 1903
First Western film, The Great Train Robbery, is released.
DECEMBER 01 1909
G.B. French becomes President (SP&S Ry.)
DECEMBER 01 1955
The first remote control railroad passenger car is tested on the
New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad between New Rochelle
and Rye, NY.
DECEMBER 01 1959
The Norfolk & Western acquires the Virginian.
DECEMBER 02 1856
First patent issued for a sleeping car.
DECEMBER 02 1892
Railroad financier, Jay Gould dies.
DECEMBER 02 1926
Cleveland Railway Company puts first all aluminum streetcar in
service.
DECEMBER 02 1980
Pullman Company is dissolved.
DECEMBER 03 1863
Ground breaking for the Union Pacific Railroad, Omaha, NE.
DECEMBER 03 1967
The last Twentieth Century Limited arrives at Chicago's LaSalle
Street Station.
DECEMBER 04 1867
The Grangers, a secret order of farmers, is founded in Washington
DC. It seeks to control railroad rates and middlemen.
DECEMBER 04 1967
Kansas City Southern tells ICC it plans to quit passenger
business
DECEMBER 05 1883
The Rock Island, Milwaukee Road and Union Pacific railroads make
an agreement for interchange of traffic at Omaha.
DECEMBER 05 1968
Last Denver & Rio Grande narrow gauge operation west out of
Alamosa.
DECEMBER 06 1915
Connaught tunnel on the Canadian Pacific Railway opens beneath
Mount McDonald. For 70 years, the five-mile tunnel was Canada's
longest.
DECEMBER 06 1968
Last steam revenue run outside of the Silverton branch for the
D&RGW, Durango to Alamosa.
DECEMBER 06 1971
Auto-Train begins daily service between Lotton, Virginia, outside
Washington, DC, and Sanford Florida. The train transport 100 cars
and 400 people.
DECEMBER 07 1891
Passenger service begins on the first international tunnel, under
the St. Clair River between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia,
Ontario.
DECEMBER 07 1941
New York Central streamlines Empire State Express with 32 new
cars from Budd.
DECEMBER 08 1874
Jesse James gang takes train at Muncie Kansas.
DECEMBER 09 1852
The Pacific makes the first demonstration run west of the
Mississippi River, from St. Louis to Cheltenham, a distance of
five miles.
DECEMBER 09 1885
The Farmer's Railway, Navigation & Steamboat Portage Company
(TFRN&SP) is incorporated in Washington Territory. Their goal
was to build a railroad around the many rapids on the Columbia
River between The Dalles and Celilo Falls. The line would be used
to transport steamboat and barge cargoes around the rapids.
DECEMBER 09 1988
Fox River Valley Railroad begins operating on 208 miles of
ex-Chicago & North Western Railway.
DECEMBER 10 1852
The Pennsylvania RR's tracks reached the Ohio River at Pittsburgh
via the famous Horseshoe Curve.
DECEMBER 10 1858
Pennsylvania Railroad connects Philadelphia and Pittsburgh
DECEMBER 10 1970
500,000 railroad workers begin a nationwide walkout. Within hours
President Nixon signs a bill providing a 13.5% wage increase and
postponing the strike for 80 days.
DECEMBER 11 1887
Operations begin on Colorado's 2-foot gauge Gilpin Tramway.
DECEMBER 11 1905
Ground broken for Willamette Valley Traction Co.
DECEMBER 12 1906
James J. Hill announces retirement from railroad business.
DECEMBER 12 1968
Canadian National begins Turboliner service for Motreal-Toronto.
DECEMBER 12 1988
New York City Subway system adds new stations (Z line).
DECEMBER 12 1989
First revenue train runs through the CP Rail 9.1 mile Mount
MacDonald Tunnel. This is the longest rail tunnel in the
Americas.
DECEMBER 13 1913
L.C. Gilman becomes President (SP&S Ry.)
DECEMBER 13 1946
19 killed in train accident at Guthrie, OH.
DECEMBER 14 1894
Eugene Debs is sentenced to six months in prison for his role in
the Pullman strike.
DECEMBER 14 1934
The first streamlined steam locomotive, the Commodore Vanderbilt,
is placed in service on the New York Central.
DECEMBER 15 1880
Southern Pacific begins train service to Deming, New Mexico.
DECEMBER 15 1907
Pasco, WA to Cliffs, WA opens (SP&S Ry.)
DECEMBER 15 1944
United Railways purchased by SP&S Ry.
DECEMBER 15 1986
VIA receives its first GM F-40PH's.
DECEMBER 16 1935
The world's longest railroad bridge, the Huey P. Long Bridge in
New Orleans, Louisiana, opens. The 23,235-foot bridge crosses the
Mississippi River.
DECEMBER 16 1941
Union Pacific removes first streamliner (M-10000) from service.
DECEMBER 16 1943
Derailment and collision of Atlantic Coast Line's Tamiami
Champions kill 72 at Lumberton, NC.
DECEMBER 16 1967
Delaware & Hudson buys four Santa Fe Alco PA's.
DECEMBER 17 1908
Bridges across Willamette and Columbia Rivers open (SP&S Ry.)
DECEMBER 17 1924
The first diesel-electric locomotive is placed in service on the
Central Railroad of New Jersey.
DECEMBER 17 1954
The Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway's Kirk Yard at Gary,
Indiana becomes the first fully automatic freight yard.
DECEMBER 18 1949
Last regular passenger service on the Rio Grande Southern
Railroad.
DECEMBER 19 1882
Denver & Rio Grande reaches Utah border. Because the D&RG
had no charter to operate in Utah, William Palmer incorporated
the mileage in that state separately as the Denver & Rio
Grande Western Railway.
DECEMBER 19 1898
Colorado & Southern incorporates.
DECEMBER 19 1906
James J. Hill acquires A&CR for the P&S
DECEMBER 19 1911
California Western line completed.
DECEMBER 19 1977
Milwaukee Road files bankruptcy.
DECEMBER 20 1883
International cantilever railway bridge opens at Niagara Falls.
DECEMBER201917 41 killed in train accident at Louisville, KY.
DECEMBER 20 1918
All government owned railroads in Canada are brought under the
management of the Canadian National Railways.
DECEMBER 20 1919
Canadian National Railways established.
DECEMBER 21 1829
The first stone arch railroad bridge in the world, the Carrollton
Viaduct, is officially opened on the Baltimore & Ohio
Railroad over Gwynn's Falls at Baltimore, Maryland.
DECEMBER 21 1907
F.B. Clarke becomes President (SP&S Ry.)
DECEMBER 21 1949
Gales Creek & Wilson River Ry. operations cease
DECEMBER 21 1962
Last Budd RDC (Rail Diesel Car) manufactured is delivered to the
Reading.
DECEMBER 22 1829
Baltimore & Ohio begins passenger operations from Baltimore
to Ellicott's Mills.
DECEMBER 22 1885
Patent # 332,762 issued to La Marcus Adna Thompson for a gravity
switchback railroad.
DECEMBER 22 1950
2 self-propelled trains of Long Island RR collide, killing 77.
DECEMBER 22 1965
Pennsylvania Railroad sells Long Island Railroad to state of New
York.
DECEMBER 22 1982
The Missouri Pacific and Western Pacific merge into Union
Pacific.
DECEMBER 23 1851
Illinois Central Railroad begins construction.
DECEMBER 23 1852
The Pacific Railroad of Missouri (later known as the Missouri
Pacific Railway) begins first passenger service west of the
Mississippi River.
DECEMBER 23 1907
The first all-steel railroad passenger coach is completed.
DECEMBER 23 1926
20 killed in train accident at Rockmont, GA
DECEMBER 23 1946
Highest ridership in New York City subway history (8.8 million
passengers).
DECEMBER 24 1852
The Baltimore & Ohio's tracks reach the Ohio River at
Wheeling, West Virginia.
DECEMBER 24 1985
Illinois Central Gulf sells 681-mile Iowa division to Chicago,
central and Pacific.
DECEMBER 25 1830
The Best Friend of the Charleston, owned by the South Carolina
Railroad, becomes the first American locomotive in regular
service in the United States.
DECEMBER 25 1848
New Haven Railroad opens.
DECEMBER 26 1917
President Wilson takes possession and control of the nations
railroads by proclamation. This resulted in the formation of the
United States Railroad Administration, which operated the
country's railroads until March 3, 1920.
DECEMBER 26 1956
Last standard gauge steam run on the Denver & Rio Grande
Western.
DECEMBER 27 1942
34 killed in train accident at Almonte, Ontario.
DECEMBER 27 1943
Fearing a threat to national security, President Franklin
Roosevelt orders the government to seize the nation's railroads
in order to avert a strike.
DECEMBER 27 1951
Last train runs on the Rio Grande Southern.
DECEMBER 28 1912
The first municipally owned streetcars begin operation in San
Francisco.
DECEMBER 28 1917
Wartime emergency called by the Federal government, which takes
control of U.S. railroads on January 1, 1918.
DECEMBER 28 1966
13 die in a train crash in Everett, MA.
DECEMBER 28 1972
Amtrak announces purchase of French built Turboliners.
DECEMBER 29 1876
Bridge collapses beneath Lakeshore & Michigan Southern's
Pacific Express killing 84.
DECEMBER 29 1982
Louisville and Nashville merged into Seaboard Coast Line, which
changes its name to Seaboard System.
DECEMBER 30 1906
53 killed in train accident at Washington, DC.
DECEMBER 30 1907
United Railways begins passenger service
DECEMBER 31 1860
First railway tunnel in Canada opens on the Brocksville &
Ottawa Railway beneath the town of Brockville.
DECEMBER 31 1943
Gales Creek & Wilson River Ry. purchased by SP&S Ry.
DECEMBER 31 1944
50 killed in train accident at Bagley, Utah.
DECEMBER 31 1968
Last U.S. Pullman service.
DECEMBER 31 1968
The New York, New Haven, & Hartford Railroad becomes part of
the Penn Central Railroad.
DECEMBER 31 1978
Last run of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Peoria Rocket.
Select historical events courtesy of RailwayStation.com
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